The purpose of this master's thesis was to examine the physical activity of women with gestational diabetes mellitus. In our study we investigated 95 pregnant women diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus. Participants in our study were treated at the Clinical Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases at the University Medical Center Ljubljana.
The results of our study showed that the majority of women had fasting blood glucose values 5,3 mmol/l or lower, as well as the majority of their postprandial glucose levels were 6.6 mmol/l or lower. Treatment using insulin was relatively low (13,68 %). During pregnancy, they were physically active for an average of 160 minutes per week at moderate intensity. Brisk walks and prenatal workouts were the most common activities. Reasons for physical inactivity were most often cited as lack of time and laziness, followed by common health problems in pregnancy. Among those, low back pain was most represented. Joy and anticipation were emotions experienced the most by our participants and anger was the least. The largest proportion of women agreed that the availability of organized prenatal workouts was sufficient. Most of our participants would attend organized prenatal workouts supervised by a kinesiology practitioner.
We found that differences between physically active and inactive women occurred only in general well-being. No differences were found in physical and mental well-being. There were also no differences between groups of pregnant women in fasting and postprandial glucose levels and in common pregnancy health problems.
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